ONE CITY. ONE BOOK. A THOUSAND CONVERSATIONS. READING GUIDE ‘So funny it’s YOU DON'T NEED almost criminal’ SUPERPOWERS Independent, i TO BE A HERO ... cityreads.co.uk How Does It Work? It couldn’t be simpler. The idea is to get young readers (and grown-ups) everywhere reading Kid Normal between now and the end of May. All you need to do to get involved is pick READING GUIDE up a copy from your local library or bookshop and start reading! If you’re a teacher you can sign up your whole class to receive class emails and free themed literacy resources, then read the book together in school. YOUNG CITY READS SPECIAL OFFER: The Book Nook in Hove is offering participating schools 20% off What Is Young City Reads? the selected title and FREE DELIVERY straight Imagine sharing a book with your best friend, your teacher, to your school. To order please contact your family or your bus driver. Reading a book together is a fun them on 01273 911988 / [email protected] experience. Everyone should try it! Young City Reads is a BIG READ for children – a giant book group for schools. Authors Greg James and Chris Smith, Brighton Festival and Young The Guide City Reads invite you to join us in a citywide read of Kid Normal This guide provides you with everything you need to know about from 1 March to 18 May 2018. Young City Reads. Taking you on a whistle-stop tour of Kid Normal, providing background information, reading hints, biographical facts Who Is It For? and ideas for further reading. Young City Reads is for everyone: whether you’re an avid adventurer, budding Young City Reads Is a Collected Works bookworm or a simply terrific teacher ... CIC Project even mums and dads can join in. It doesn’t Collected Works is a Brighton- and Hove-based social enterprise, matter who you are, Young City Reads is devoted to reader development through the shared act of about opening up the world of words and reading fiction in the community. The organisation is led by ideas to everyone. Artistic Director Sarah Hutchings. For up-to-the-minute information visit cityreads.co.uk. READING GUIDE ABOUT THE BOOK Murph Cooper has a problem. His new school is top secret and super weird. His classmates can all fly or control the weather or conjure tiny horses from thin air. And what’s Murph’s extraordinary skill? Um, oh yeah – he hasn’t got one. Just as well there are no revolting supervillains lurking nearby, their minds abuzz with evil plans. There are!? Right. Ok, then ... It’s time for to become a hero! ‘This spoof superhero epic certainly delivers: deliciously dastardly villains, capes, tights and mild- mannered heroes. Yet it also explores familiar school Don’t miss the next hilarious anxieties that everyone else is smarter, stronger, better. adventure! Here, even Kid Normal has superpowers!’ BookTrust Spotlight on (illustrator) ERICA SALCEDO is a freelance illustrator living in Cuenca ‘We know that Brighton is full (Spain) where she was born. After studying Fine Arts in of superpowers: seagull evasion, shingle navigation and dolphin READING GUIDE Castilla-La Mancha University, she specialized in graphic racing, to name but three. And now design and illustration doing a masters degree at the we’re looking forward to adding a Polytechnic University of Valencia. Her work is focused few new ones with the help of your on children’s illustration and is inspired by everyday life, awesome powers of creativity. We ABOUT THE AUTHORS hope you enjoy meeting Murph and and her imagination does the rest. his friends in Kid Normal, and we can’t wait to meet you all to make Spotlight on Erica loves drawing (obviously), travelling, animals, up some new stories!’ GREG JAMES is a familiar voice and face on radio and TV. He’s the drinking tea every day, eating sweets and not taking life Greg James and Chris Smith host of BBC Radio 1’s award-winning Drivetime show and presents too seriously. the UK’s Official Chart every Friday. On screen, Greg has hosted a variety of shows, most recently seen fronting BBC Children in Need. He is also the face of BT Sport’s cricket coverage and in 2016 EVENTS raised over a million pounds for Sport Relief by completing five Greg James and Chris Smith triathlons in five cities in five days. Greg has no superpowers. In his LIVE at Brighton Festival spare time he enjoys the idea of having hobbies. But in reality, he’s Interactive Schools Event made all of them into work. Fri 18 May, 10.30–11.30 a.m. (book signing afterwards) Brighton Dome Concert Hall Spotlight on Tickets £3 (early bird offer £1.50) CHRIS SMITH is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster who delivers the news to millions of people every day as the Young City Reads 2018 Launch presenter of Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1. Chris enjoyed a previous, Selected schools celebrate World Book Day glittering literary career as the winner of the H.E. Bates Short Story Thurs 1 March Competition 1981 (under tens category) with his tale ‘Where Are the Brandy Snaps?’ Chris has no superpowers either, although Library Visits for Your Class he enjoys pretending his cat Mabel can fly by picking her up and Participating schools can book a FREE class visit with running around. Brighton & Hove City Libraries. Together on Greg’s show and in their weekly podcast, Chris and To book please contact Jo Rosenberg on 01273 296977 / Greg are responsible for some of radio’s most ludicrous games and [email protected] characters, which genuinely wouldn’t make any sense if we tried to explain them here. Extraordinary Ernie & Marvelous Maud by Frances Watts * ALL KINDS OF HEROIC Supercat vs The Chip Thief by Jeanne Willis Star Wars: Return of the Jedi by Ryder Windham Further Reading from Supergirl at Super Hero High by Lisa Yee + Brighton & Hove Libraries Dr Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales by various authors + READING GUIDE Non-Fiction If you loved Kid Normal, you’ll love these other awesome Sporting Heroes by Jane Bingham adventures and tales of real-life heroes, available from Brighton & How to Draw Comic Book Heroes by Mark Bergin Hove Libraries: *=ebook available +=audiobook available Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls : 100 tales of extraordinary women by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo * Fiction Ellie Simmonds: Champion Swimmer by Clive Gifford Mo Farah: Olympic Hero by Simon Hart Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty Rosa Parks by Lisbeth Kaiser Dr Vlogger by Tony Bradman Animal Superheroes by Raphaël Martin Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill Stephen Hawking: Pioneering Scientist Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo * by Sonya Newland Superhero Street by Phil Earle Fantastically Great Women Who Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly * Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst Super Daisy by Kes Gray David Attenborough by Sarah Ridley Mold and the Poison Plot by Lorraine Gregory What’s So Special About The Big Book of Superheroes by Bart King * Shakespeare? by Michael Rosen * Superhero Mum by Timothy Knapman Malala Yousafzai by Claire Throp * Superhero Hotel by Abie Longstaff * The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones by Will Mabbitt + Superhero School by Alan Macdonald * The Accidental Secret Agent by Tom McLaughlin Samira the Superhero Fairy by Daisy Meadows The Magma Conspiracy by Alex Milway You can search for more books, ebooks and audiobooks Perijee and Me by Ross Montgomery on the Brighton & Hove Libraries website: Julius Zebra: Bundle with the Britons! by Gary Northfield + brighton-hove.gov.uk/libraries Dog Man and Cat Kid by Dav Pilkey Did you know? Brighton & Hove Libraries Varjak Paw by S.F. Said + offer free class visits to any of their My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons * My Evil Twin is a Supervillain by David Solomons libraries for local schools. Hamish and the WorldStoppers by Danny Wallace * Email [email protected] or phone 01273 290800 to find out more. CHAPTER 4 Apart from their teacher, Mr Flash, who is very loud and looks like he has spent decades at the gym, the classroom seems normal enough. Murph begins to relax. READING GUIDE There’s no time for readers to relax, however, as we are given our first glimpse of the book’s baddy, Nektar – a disgusting half- man half-wasp creature – before the action returns to Murph’s first CHAPTER SUMMARIES lesson. The lesson has a mysterious name: ‘CT’. Murph doesn’t CHAPTER 1 understand anything that happens in it. First a boy called Timothy gets up and stares at a television for a while, then Murph Cooper hates the house he has just moved into with his a shy girl called Nellie is called to the front and does nothing mum and his brother Andy. The family is always having to move (although at the same time a strong breeze blows a window because of Mum’s job, and Murph is fed up with it. His mum tries shut). Plus everyone keeps talking about capes, even though to reassure him that she’s sure this move will turn out to be for the nobody’s wearing one. Then Mr Flash calls on Murph! Murph has best. In fact, she suspects that ‘it’s going to be … super.’ no idea what he’s supposed to do! He’s saved by the bell – but he’ll CHAPTER 2 be first up tomorrow. Murph’s mum can’t find him a new school. Just when they’ve nearly CHAPTER 5 given up hope, they discover a nondescript building at the end Mary spots Murph looking bewildered and explains things.